“I don’t know why you have such a big problem with it.” I did, of course, but there was no point in acknowledging that. I was quite happy to argue this to death. “Anyway, I’m sure you don’t want dad to know anything about it so maybe we can chat about it later.”
My dad made his entrance a few moments later, accompanied by three brawny guys. He gave Nick a kick in the ribs with the toe of his boots before appraising my mother. “Good going. You got him good.”
My mother gave an exasperated sigh, eyeing up my dad’s friends. “What are we going to do about this? You don’t think we should take him to the hospital, do you?”
My dad kicked him again, harder this time, and smirked when he received a groan. “I don’t think it’ll be necessary. I’m sure he can take himself if he’s troubled,” he sighed, shaking his head. “What were you doing with this moron?”
My dad was nothing compared to Nick; he was podgy and balding and twice his age. My mum could only look at him with masked admiration. “Oh shush, just help me figure this out.” Lily had calmed down now, cradled in my mum’s arms. She’d be too young to remember this.
“We wait until he properly wakes up, I threaten him into properly leaving you alone this time, and he goes and crawls back to wherever he came from. It seems simple enough to me.”
My father took a seat on the sofa where he had direct vision of Nick’s slumped body. Crossing his arms, his friends joined him in silence. It was almost comical.
It didn’t take long for Nick to come around, groaning and quickly letting the rage take over his slack expression. My dad was quicker, placing a large boot on his chest and stopping him getting up. “Remember me?”
He no doubt remembered the cronies standing around him more, all looking intimidating and scary. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in his position right now. “Fuck off, old man. This is none of your business. I want to see my daughter.”
My dad kicked him in the ribs a third time, hitting the same spot and drawing a low moan from Nick’s lips. “Listen here. You are going to leave this woman alone. I meant it last time, but this time I’m doing it in front of her and we all know that if you so much as look at her again, I’m going to be coming to show you exactly where you went wrong. Do you understand me?”
Nick wanted so badly to argue. His lip was curled and the anger oozed from his expression, but he simply couldn’t. My dad pressed harder and he submitted. “Fine, just get the fuck off me you madman.”
He almost fell over trying to get back up and I held in a chuckle. I almost couldn’t believe it was really over, but if my mum and dad were willing to cooperate on this, there was no reason it couldn’t be. Nick wasn’t the kind of person to care about his daughter; he’d leave this alone now because it was no longer worth the hassle. It was what I had to hope for.
When he’d slammed the door behind him, one of my dad’s friends let out a chuckle. “What a loser.”
Chapter Thirty
“I can’t believe we’re actually watching this,” I groaned as the opening credits to Bridesmaids starting playing. “You must know every word off by heart.”
To prove a point, Meg spoke the lines in exact time with the actors.
Hannah and I couldn’t help but laugh, stuffing our mouths with popcorn whilst Meg was too preoccupied to. She slipped up after a minute and we booed her.
Meg rolled her eyes. “I got my offer from Nottingham yesterday,” she revealed with a small smile. She’d been out of the hospital two days now. We’d given her the first night to be with her mum before accosting her with popcorn and plenty of DVDs that weren’t Bridesmaids. Seeing her out of hospital had all our moods lifted.
“That’s great!” Hannah and I chorused. I’d begun to get seriously worried when I’d received my own Nottingham offer a few days ago, but this was perfect.
Meg beamed, “thanks guys. I was so stressed out about it, but this has just topped everything off,” she held up her finger when her favourite song started playing in the background of the film. “And I broke up with Rob. You don’t have to pretend to be sorry for me, I know I was an idiot.”
I chuckled. “Well, I for one am glad. I think it’s safe to say he wasn’t the best influence on you.”
“And you and Mr. Wright?” She pushed. “It killed me not being able to see you to ask after all the drama with your mum.”
“My mum is safe in the knowledge that I’m just a poor teenager crushing after my teacher and that Mr. Wright is far too concerned about his job to ever come near me again,” I told her seriously. “Ollie and I have decided to save ourselves for each other until the end of the year.”
Hannah whistled. “That’s going to be one horny graduation night.”
I grinned. “Tell me about it. It’s been like a week and I’m already dying inside.”
“At least your mum gave you your laptop back.”
“That was probably only because she realised I’d actually fail if I couldn’t type up any of my essays. I’m pretty sure the phone is only because she’s scared of me leaving the house without one, too. I’m still technically grounded. This is an exception.”
“I can’t believe we all have such late birthdays,” Meg groaned. “If only we were eighteen in September, then we could keep going out despite your fake ID confiscation.”
I wasn’t sure how Meg could contemplate ever going near substances again, but I wasn’t about to doubt her. This had been a wake-up call for everyone. “Well, I for one am going to be going out as often as I can. I need to meet someone new since my relationships blew up in my face.”
The eyebrows on mine and Meg’s faces shot up. “What? Where have you been hiding this gossip?”
Hannah chuckled. “I was too embarrassed to come straight out with it. I’ve been such a moron about the entire thing. Oh!” She looked at me guiltily. “I guess I should have told you straight away, since I broke up with Mike. He never mentioned you and Ollie again, even in the few days before I broke up with him.”
I rested my head against the headboard. “Thank God. My mum would have had a hissy fit.”
Hannah paused to munch on her popcorn, a wide smile on her face. “Anyway, Ewan found out I had a boyfriend so he stopped seeing me and I broke up with Mike off my own back. So now I’m single and unsure if I’m relieved or miserable. I think I just need some sex from somewhere, Mike turned out to be awful in the bedroom.”
“I feel your pain,” Meg agreed.
“Me too.”
The two girls turned to grimace at me.
“Hey! Just because I have someone lined up in sixth months doesn’t mean I’m going to be satisfied that entire time. It’s going to kill me watching you take guys home.”
Hannah smirked, “there’s literally 0 chance that you and Ollie are going to go the entire year without slipping up and sleeping together at least once.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen you two together and you’re gagging for it all the time. I’m definitely betting you sleep together before graduation.”
“It is his job at stake you know. We’re not just agreeing to stay each other for the fun of it.”
“It was his job at stake the other times you gave in and slept with each other anyway,” Meg pointed out, holding her hand up to shush us once more.
I rolled my eyes, but I supposed I couldn’t fault her logic. “I guess.”
“Shush!” She exclaimed, glaring at me. I chewed on my popcorn extra loud whilst Meg watched the scene. “Thank you,” she said, exasperated, when it was finished. “I don’t know why you guys hate this film so much.”
“I don’t even hate it, I’ve just seen it so many times.”
“Pfft, you never let me watch it as often as I want,” Meg moaned, scraping the bottom of the empty bowl. “So, where are we going to find guys? Have we scoped out the year below yet?”
“I haven’t had chance,” Hannah lamented. “Too much drama with the boyfriends thing. Do you think I really might have a relationship thing? I really just want to sleep wit
h people.”
I chuckled. “You’re seventeen, go out and sleep with as many people as you can find. You’re going to have a field day at uni.”
“I can’t believe your mum found out about your fake ID and summer. My mum would be so horrified, she’d find some way to keep me locked inside even when I’m eighteen,” Hannah shuddered. “And your mum is never going to let you out of her sight, Meg.”
Meg groaned. “Please don’t remind me. I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid as it is, now I’m going to be stranded at home for the rest of my life. I’m such a moron.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t die, so I’m afraid I don’t have too much sympathy,” I joked, pulling out my phone and attempting to ignore the text from Ollie. Meg’s doubts were becoming more and more real by the moment.
It wasn’t even funny, just a stupid picture of a cat that put a smile on my face anyway.
Meg and Hannah both peered over my shoulder. “You aren’t going to last more than a week.”
Epilogue
“Please don’t be too weird about it,” I begged my mum, already feeling the nerves swirling in my stomach. “Just give him a chance.”
“I didn’t think I was ever going to have to see him again.”
I’d done a pretty good job of convincing her that Ollie and I really were nothing more than friends, to be fair. The entire year I’d not mentioned him to her, not been caught speaking to him – not even been caught that one time we gave in and spent a hot night breaking our promises to stay away from each other.
It was really no wonder she’d been surprised by my revelation that I was dating Ollie the day after I graduated.
And I’d practically made her invite him to dinner. I loved him and so my mum was going to have to love him too, one way or another. Our arguments about Ollie had fizzled out relatively quickly after the Nick issue had been resolved – I’d convinced her there was nothing to worry about and let her confiscate my fake ID.
As much as I’d expected things to calm down, the three of us had still been out nearly every weekend after we all turned eighteen. We’d just stayed well away from the drugs after the scare. Meg, Hannah and I talking about our problems had ended up being incredibly refreshing. The angst had been mainly taken out of mine and Ollie’s relationship following our end of year agreement.
And now my mum was going to realise what a great guy he was.
I opened the door with a big grin, eyeing up Ollie in his shirt and tie and revelling in the awkward half-smile on his face. “Am I allowed to kiss you? Or should I be trying to just avoid eye-contact with everyone?”
I pressed a peck to his lips, unable to hold back the grin. “I think you’re probably going to wish you’d not accepted my invite.”
He passed the bottle of wine he’d brought to my mum and then folded his hands behind his back, quite clearly resisting the urge to run. “Hello, Ollie,” there was nothing to hide her distaste. “It’s nice to officially meet you.”
Parents evening hadn’t been the most pleasant experience. I’d tried my absolute hardest to get out of it, but luckily both parties had stayed professional. My mother had just glared at him a lot.
“You too.” They shook hands, which was awkward enough by itself, before I gestured for him to sit down at the table. We were having pizza, as per my request, so at least the food couldn’t go wrong. My mum disappeared back into the kitchen.
“I can’t believe you’re making me do this. Your mum hates me.” She was unimpressed both by how I’d met him, the age difference, and the entire student-teacher debacle. It was just bad all round, as far as she was concerned.
There was no denying the almost permanent grin on my face since graduation, though.
Ollie just made me happy.
And I was eighteen now, so there was no real argument my mum could put forward. She just needed to get to know him, and realise that there were only things to like.
When the smell of perfectly cooked pizza wafted to my nose, my stomach rumbled. “It’s impossible not to like you,” I squeezed his hand under the table and resisted the urge to kiss him once more. I wondered if that urge would ever go away. “It’s going to be a good night, trust me.”
Maybe once we’d opened the bottle of wine he’d brought it would all get a bit easier.
“So, you’re a teacher, I already know that. Where did you go to university?”
The whole topic had been a difficult talking point for us lately, but Ollie was looking for jobs up north and I knew he’d enjoy living in Newcastle, both because of me and his sister. It was just dependent on whether there was a job up there for him.
I knew he’d get a sterling reference from our head teacher, anyway.
Ollie cleared his throat. “I went to Oxford. I studied English Literature.”
My mother raised an eyebrow, folding her hands underneath her chin and ignoring the pizza completely. “Impressive, I suppose I’ll give you that.”
Ollie’s cheeks tinged pink and he took a long sip of his wine. “Thank you.”
“And as for my daughter…” she trailed off and stared Ollie down, before smirking. “I suppose I’ll have to accept it. As long as you don’t turn out to be a real creeper I’m just glad she’s happy. I don’t think I can really judge, anyway,” she rolled her eyes, all of us glad to have the Nick situation behind us. “Just don’t turn out to be a dickhead, please, otherwise I’m going to have to bring my ex-husband in for another performance.”
I grinned, eyes sparkling as Ollie let out the smallest of sighs. “Thanks, mum.”
“I’m just glad you waited until school was finished and you were eighteen,” she narrowed her eyes. “And I’m going to assume that you did, out of the goodness of my heart.”
“Hey! We actually did, you have no idea how miserable that was.” Both of our faces flamed at that, but my grin was persistent.
I linked my pinkie with Ollie’s under the table, munching on my pizza and enjoying the general chit chat that flowed after the more serious stuff had been gotten out of the way.
My mum had nothing to worry about, though. If we’d made it this far, we could take on anything.
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Carly has won a scholarship to another world – a private ballet Academy for the elite. What she isn’t expecting is to find love whilst she’s there… especially not with her teacher.
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